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He was born the son of a gospel preacher and his devoted wife in 1955 in Nocona, Texas, at the time known as the Leather Capital of the World. He was the second of four sons. Of those sons of such humble beginnings and upbringing came a Senior Partner in the prestigious Burr Forman Law Firm in Birmingham; an interventional cardiologist in Birmingham; a CPA and Attorney in New York City; and Phil who started founded The Cavender Financial Group, Inc. in 1984. At an early age Phil earned what his family’s income may have lacked to have the things he set as goals. At age 7, he sold GRIT newspapers on the Gregg County Court House steps in Longview, Texas. He sold Mason shoes, Readers Digest, Dickson Bibles, door to door as a child. He worked in the lunch room each day as a dishwasher so he could get a free lunch and more importantly, a token that he redeemed for an ice cream treat. It didn’t matter to him that he washed dishes while his classmates ate lunch. He mowed lawns and took on a paper route for three years where he delivered a daily newspaper, the Port Arthur News. On Sunday mornings he would get up at 4 a.m. to delivery newspapers on his bicycle to the mailbox of each home carefully placed in each box. Phil was twice named the Paperboy of the Year. He then went to work at a local grocery store carrying out groceries and stocking food at the largest independent grocery store in Southeast Texas, Howards Grocery Store. He has never stopped working and learning from every opportunity, constantly improving himself along the way. He figured out productive ways to utilize his young age. Early in life Phil learned the importance of having a daily work plan, not a day that evolves as the hours go by. His greatest classroom was each new day and experiences of those days and they have been a wonderful instructor. Today, Phil has a clientele throughout the United States. How could a business that does no advertising have clients in such diverse places across the United States? By word of mouth. “Your reputation for integrity and having strong and valuable relationships is so important to sustain a business model for 25 years,” says Phil Cavender. “We have taken a profession and moved to an environment where there is virtually no competition by taking time to explain the things other sales people have never explained. The processes and the environment in which money works is so much more important than the products people use to obtain financial success. I find so often that what people tell me they want and what they have are two different things. Either they don’t mean what they say or they have not been educated to the uncertainties of the products they have been sold.” “Little things mean so much in the success of a business. I think having the look of success means a lot. The office environment, the personnel, the attention the client receives, the messages that are being sent. They all add up. Their perception is reality to them. Is your office where someone would write you a million dollar check or a fifty dollar check? Think about it. I started my practice with cinder block and pine board bookcases and an old metal desk from a yard sale. Today our environment has grown into what we are today. We never claim perfection. We look for progress, not perfection. If we are constantly improving of business it will take us to higher and higher levels of influence. “ “In the national best seller, Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert wrote, “To see is to experience the world as it is, to remember is to experience the world as it was, but to imagine – ah, to imagine is to experience the world as it isn’t and has never been, but as it might be.” I say goodbye to each day and look forward to the next with anxious anticipation of making it better than the day before. Progress, not perfection.” “Another important success principle is the value of the right team. It’s important to have the right people in the right places in any organization. You can’t teach a pig to fly. No matter how much runway you give a pig, he can never fly. So why continue to keep the wrong people in important and necessary places in an organization? I look to place people in their strength positions so they are operating out of their sweet spots.” “I also look for loyalty and with people with great engaging personalities who connect with people. How could we grow a relationship business if we have people that can’t connect? I look for BI (Batteries Included) People. I want people who add zest and energy to every occasion. BNI (Batteries Not Included) People need not apply. These are the people that suck and drain every ounce of energy from an organization. There will always be those people, but not on my team.” “One last thing, increasing confidence is the single most important human ability. Confidence in people’s minds is always related to action, but it starts with the ability to focus and make decisions. The confident person has the ability to shut out distractions, establish priorities, make sound judgments, create strategies, and carry them out effectively. They habitually take advantage of the opportunities before others know about them. They constantly make good use of their available strengths and resources. Their lives are a progression of moving from what’s familiar to their new circumstances so that the new feels as familiar as the old, achieving greater success and happiness in the process. In doing this, they themselves become a positive force for change that provides many others with a sense of direction, inspiration, and capability.” Philip M. Cavender, Founder and CEO THE CAVENDER FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. 201 East Main Street, Suite 431 Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37130 615-895-7773 local 800-395-7773 toll-free 615-895-8822 fax 866-492-5938 toll-free fax
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Phil Cavender graduated from the Auburn University School of Business in 1982. Upon graduation he began his career in the rubber industry and then into the Texas oil industry in his home town of Port Arthur, Texas.